Re: Scarcity or high school physics teachers.

[herbgottlieb@juno.com]

 "Lanzafame, Frank"  writes: 
> > Physics is the fundamental science, why shouldn't it be taught first?
: "James W. Wheeler answered,
> For one thing, there is the issue of some mathematics pre-requisites.
> When I went to high school in the late 50's, physics was taught in the 
> third year and chemistry in the fourth year.

About 20 years ago, the AAPT committee on pre-high school physics
reported that those schools who taught physics before bio or chem
were very happy with the results and the students gained a great 
deal from this reversed sequence of traditional high school science 
courses.  

 The mathematics included in most high school physics courses 
is trivial and is usually much easier than intermediate algebra. High
school
sophomores rarely have trouble with the math. However, there is usually
one main difficulty that is almost impossible to overcome.  there is
always 
a surplus of new Biology teachers available.  College students who start 
out as pre-med and become disenchanted with the thought of becoming
doctors, have had all of the requisite Biology courses ....and very few
(if any) in Physics.   Most of them do not have the desire, motivation,
or 
qualification to teach physics.  If Physics is selected by all high
schools
as the introductory science course for all students, it will be
impossible to 
obtain enough physics teachers for them. To the best of my knowledge,
none of the colleges or universities produce more than one or two 
such graduates each year.

Herb  Gottlieb  from New York City
(Where it is most difficult to get enough Physics teachers for even 20% 
of our 10th year students)